1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a chip conveyer for a machine tool for discharging chips generated by machining a workpiece to an outside.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following description of related art sets forth the inventors' knowledge of related art and certain problems therein and should not be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art.
In a chip conveyer of this type, it is configured to drop chips on a partition plate arranged in a casing and scrape out the chips on the partition plate by scraping plates fixed to drive chains to an outside. In this case, the chips dropped on a bottom wall of the casing from the partition plate are returned to the partition plate by the scraping plates to be discharged (see, e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-79730 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-331438.
In the meantime, in the type of the aforementioned conventional technique, depending on the material, etc., of the workpiece to be processed, there is a case in which chips float in the cutting fluid tank and therefore the chips cannot be sufficiently scraped out by merely scraping out the chips dropped on the partition plate by the scraping plates.
There also is a type in which no partition plate is provided and chips dropped on the bottom portion of the cutting fluid tank of the casing are scraped out by scraping plates. However, dedicated chip conveyers for respective types were produced, which increased the production cost, and it was necessary for a user to select the type of chip conveyer mainly considering what workpiece is to be processed.
The description herein of advantages and disadvantages of various features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed in other publications is in no way intended to limit the present invention. For example, certain features of the described embodiments of the invention may be capable of overcoming certain disadvantages and/or providing certain advantages, such as, e.g., disadvantages and/or advantages discussed herein, while retaining some or all of the features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed therein.